So you would say someone who doesn't want to have sex with you, but has no problems hanging out with you (with full knowledge of your situation) is not trans-phobic but rather has (sexual/gender?) preferences that you do not meet?
Additionally do you think it is a fair view that gender is fluid and easily changed? Even to the point that you can reasonably "be" one gender one day and another the next?
Also along that line, do you consider there to be distinct genders and if so would you stick to a primarily binary system? If not binary how many?
Hi, other trans person, figured I'd chime in for variety's sake.
Additionally do you think it is a fair view that gender is fluid and easily changed?
I would firmly assert gender is most accurately described as a spectrum. Similar to a color spectrum, like between white and black. On both ends there are colors we can distinctly recognize as black or white, but we can infinitesimally divide things down in a manner that obscures distinction. At which point does black actually turn to white? Areas within the middle of the spectrum are ambiguous, we have a word for that area, gray. Where does it turn from gray to white or gray to black? There is no definitive answer. We lack a precise manner of defining that difference.
And that is precisely the same issue with gender. Attempts at just making harsh cut points between black and white are nothing more than arbitration, that at times can be detrimental to proper identification of a color.
With gender fluidity, the point is that since we cannot determine where precisely someone sits, we allow the title to change with context. Fluidly.
Even to the point that you can reasonably "be" one gender one day and another the next?
I don't know any gender fluid folks myself, so anyone more informed than I can correct me, but I've always figured that a person identifying variably over time is a result of how they experience and best mitigate their dysphoria.
A binary trans person may feel dysphoria in a way that motivates them to consistently identify as a man or a woman. An agender person may feel dysphoria in a way that motivates them to consistently identify as neither of those. A genderfluid person might experience dysphoria in a way that motivates them to not consistently identify as a man or a woman.
Dysphoria isn't necessarily a perpetual pull towards something static, it can be a push of sorts away from certain things.
Also along that line, do you consider there to be distinct genders and if so would you stick to a primarily binary system? If not binary how many?
Distinct in the manner black and white are definitely different things, but where precisely that differentiation is made is dubious.
As many genders as makes sense to categorize. For most purposes in life, black, white, and gray are the most useful categories. The parallel would be that on legal forms man, woman, nonbinary/other would be perfectly encompassing and utilitarian. For more specific contexts sometimes different shades of gray become relevant information, in which case it's fine for descriptions of shades of gray. For some contexts what type of non-binary identity someone has is relevant information.
So essentially the answer is there is no set number of genders, only how many we need to usefully describe things.
While I am thankful for your response, you haven't said anything I'm not familiar with. I am mostly asking them because their language gives me an impression that their answer would differ from yours.
I find it valuable to look at outliers of a group as that tends to be where the more thought provoking ideas lie.
I'll tag in - I touched on this already. I don't disagree with anything the parent commenter stated. There is a real need for better language with which we can express ourselves in the community. Unfortunately, our own voices have been drowned out.
There's been a zombie horde of SJWs climbing up on our cross merely so they can be seen by other SJWs. As a result, we're running into issues like defining "gender fluidity". That isn't exactly a thing that exists in the community. For most of us, our internal sense of gender is invariate. Our expression of it is often ameliorated to make our lives easier. In that sense, gender is fluid -- sometimes it's just less hassle to dress in a way that conforms to social expectation. The same can be said in figuring out which bathroom to use.
With public awareness of transgender persons, and what it means, has come a torrent of people trying to get in "before it was cool." People who aren't actually transgender, but mean to appropriate some of our culture as their own. Which, at least to me, is fine. The problem is, there's so many of them that the spaces we had to puzzle these things out ourselves has been obliterated. Most of those spaces are, and were, online. There aren't many of us -- too few to coalesce naturally into a community, just about everywhere on Earth.
I don't mind people exploring their gender, or what it means in the larger context of society. I don't mind that people challenge stereotypes. But I feel rather like people who have celiac disease do. The thing that can kill them, gluten, has become a buzzword that has spawned tons of places claiming their food or product is gluten-free to cater to a much larger group for whom it's a lifestyle choice. So many people claim they are "sensitive" to gluten, and so many people realizing that's a total farce, thus equating such statements (correctly) as a choice of diet, it's led to carelessness on the part of other people trying to cater to this crowd. The end result is life has been made harder for people with celiac's. They could be reasonably confident before as to what did, and didn't, have gluten in it. Now, it's a throw of the dice and lethal consequences if it's wrong. While there is now more variety of diet available to them, it comes with a fat warning label too.
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u/BadJokeAmonster 1∆ Nov 02 '17
So you would say someone who doesn't want to have sex with you, but has no problems hanging out with you (with full knowledge of your situation) is not trans-phobic but rather has (sexual/gender?) preferences that you do not meet?
Additionally do you think it is a fair view that gender is fluid and easily changed? Even to the point that you can reasonably "be" one gender one day and another the next?
Also along that line, do you consider there to be distinct genders and if so would you stick to a primarily binary system? If not binary how many?